~ disaffected culture hound

Monthly Archives: November 2016

I realize that this is not a well-read site. Often I feel like I’m just adding words to the whirling cyber vortex, which is probably why I haven’t made this a priority in my day-to-day. So I feel pretty confident that this is a reasonably good hidey-hole for things I might like to write about that might cross into “old crank constantly yelling on facebook” territory, and that’s what this is.

So this post is for the people I know that before the election were posting article after article critical of Hillary Clinton’s emails, that called her corrupt and a sellout, that claimed the primaries were rigged (especially people who posted that ridiculous paper about exit polls), arguing in forums that she was dishonest, a serial liar, who would ignore the pressure from the left and reward corporate cronies with plum positions in her cabinet. The people who are now yelling “I DIDN’T VOTE FOR TRUMP” and using sad-faced emoticons on all the stories pouring in of attacks on people of color, kids chanting racist things at their schoolmates and of swastikas painted on walls. The people who wanted to tear down the corporate system without really understanding what the system does. The people who drew their line in the sand as loudly and forcefully as they could, claiming equivalency between the corporate monsters. Yeah, you.

People listened to you. I’m a little confused why you’re so surprised and angry that you’re getting some of the internet stink-eye. Why were you posting those articles and arguing that she was a terrible candidate if you didn’t want anyone to listen to you? I mean, you weren’t going to change my mind, I had done my research, but there’s a segment of the population that doesn’t for a variety of reasons, and they’re passively consuming their facebook and Twitter feeds. They’re thinking, “huh, X believes there’s no difference between the two candidates. X is a good friend and I trust their judgment.” Add in the occasional cable news show and you’ve swayed someone towards the argument you now speciously claim you weren’t making.

Look, I’ll probably never tell this to your face. That’s the beauty of the internet, it is a safe space for grudges to wither and die. I just want to add one thing: the people who did this and are now crying hardest about Trump: white guys. They claim they “held their nose and voted for Clinton”, so Trump isn’t their fault. The first woman presidential candidate and you held your nose, huh. I didn’t have to hold my nose to vote for her, and I’m pretty sure that I can smell sexist bullshit coming from your direction.

I’m going to start with Trump voters, who deserve it. Trump voters weren’t the people making $50,000 and under, those people voted for Hillary by 12% in the lower income bracket, and 9% in the higher. All other income brackets went for Trump. Second, the two most important issues to Trump voters were immigration and terrorism, which this study says barely affect them. And the economy, a distant third as their median income is around $72,000. I understand that is at the low end of the spectrum for Republicans, but I digress. There is one interesting facet of Trump voters, that I admit is a problem, and I would love to see action on it – Trump voters tend to live in areas where white people are sicker and tend to die younger, and they see less income mobility for their children. Also, their communities are all similar, in other words, they have almost no truck with the people they are railing against. This is all terrible and deserves some attention, but that is not what Trump voters were concerned about. That was immigrants and terrorism and they got spoon fed delicious scapegoat pudding right out of How To Make Pudding and Propaganda 101.

Now, my leftist friends, who have been posting memes and insightful articles about how Bernie would have won, he was winning with white voters! We have to listen to all the racist, misogynist, bigoted faff dressed up as white economic distress seriously!

No, we don’t.

First of all, African Americans voted overwhelmingly for Hillary. She did pretty well with Latinos, though not as good as Obama. I think the reason for this is twofold. First, Clinton had a lot of baggage to overcome from previous remarks about minority communities, and she took her primary victories for granted (75% of African Americans voted for her over Bernie) and did not do the work to get voters to early voting. Second, there were serious voter suppression efforts in these neighborhoods. And let’s be unbelievably clear; I am not saying that voter turnout was the sole factor in costing her minority turnout or the election, but I am pretty sure that it played a part or at least the North Carolina GOP is pretty sure. If Clinton had been able to retain the 2012 numbers of these groups she would have won.

The pundits, by and large, don’t seem to care about this. It’s all hand-wringing about how we should have listened to what working-class whites had to say. Well, the pundits are partially right, working class and middle-class people are hurting in this country, but white people don’t have the exclusive rights to that fact. Why should we ignore the black working class? Or the Latino? Or any other minority who falls into this category? It seems like solving this problem by creating jobs that pay well would be a solution that would benefit all members of the working class, not just the whites. Who, I would like to remind you, definitely said the economy is not their main issue and proved it by voting in the party who has advocated eliminating the minimum wage.

And besides, we have caved to the economic distress of white men over and over in our history. Reconstruction, Jim Crow, blocking blacks from New Deal benefits, and it’s gotten us to right here, where once again everyone views the ills of this country through the economic distress of white men. How about we progressives stop listening to them, and start listening to what all the other people in this country have to say? Because the solutions to these problems are for everyone, not just white people. They aren’t the only ones that are being left behind by changing technology and the creeping rule of the kleptocracy, all of America is, and increasing turnout in minority communities is just as, if not more important.